Report: XNA Is Dead

The Microsoft XNA development platform is being discontinued, which might be sad news for indie developers. The toolset, which was used in the creation of Xbox Live Arcade titles like Fez, Bastion, and Dust: An Elysian Tail, served as way for smaller developers to get their titles in the hands of Xbox 360 gamers.

According to an internal email obtained by CVG, XNA is "not in active development," and the company is retiring it from the MVP Award Program. In effect, Microsoft is phasing out XNA as a development platform, which is a bit of a surprise considering how many smaller development studios used XNA to produce some of the games that defined Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games.

Microsoft has not announced any plans for any replacement or successor to the XNA platform.